Editor:
It's a pretty sad situation when you can be refused service at your local medical clinic just because you complained about their lack of service.
In my case, I was diagnosed with a heart condition called atrial fibrosis and sent to the Burnaby General Hospital by this clinic. But that doesn't make any difference to them after I complained in an email about their policy of not accepting phone calls to make an appointment.
It all has to be done online. This puts anyone without a computer at a distinct disadvantage. But so far as they're concerned, if you're suffering, you should just call 911 and be rushed to the hospital by ambulance at taxpayers’ expense.
Or you can go to another clinic, as I have been told to do. Of course, it will be further away from your home but that's your problem.
I won't name this clinic since the manager has accused me in an email of making abusive and threatening comments to the doctors at the clinic.
The truth is that my complaint was made by email to the anonymous person in the office who responds to the emails. So, on top of this dehumanizing experience of online communication only, my online appointments were cancelled on at least two occasions because I was told that the doctor already had enough "family" patients to see. And did they care about my struggle to visit the clinic, gasping for breath? They couldn't care less, I'd say.
Of course I complained about that as well.
I've also been told by the manager that this is a private clinic and that they can do what they want, in other words.
Is that so?
So long as the doctors are reimbursed by public funds from the Medical Services Plan, that sounds pretty public to me. Instead of being offered help in finding a family doctor, I'm told to go away. Go to hell, so far as they're concerned.
Jim Ervin, Burnaby
